FAQs

Question: What are umbilical cord stem cells and why we collect them?
Answer: The umbilical cord, connecting the foetus with the mother is cut at the time of delivery and discarded. Cord blood (the remaining blood in the ...

Question: What is a bank for cord blood stem cells?
Answer: Cord stem cell preservation consists of collecting the «leftover» umbilical cord blood from the placenta and umbilical cord after ...

Question: Have stem cells been used to treat any human diseases yet?
Answer: Adult somatic stem cells such as blood-forming stem cells in bone marrow (blood marrow stem cells or BMSC) are currently the only type of stem ...

Question: Why not use human adult somatic stem cells instead of human embryonic stem cells in research?
Answer: Embryonic stem cells are pluripotent, which means they have the ability to differentiate into all cell types of the body. Adult somatic stem ...

Question: How are human embryonic stem cells obtained for research, and at what stage of embryonic development?
Answer: Human embryonic stem cells are derived from eggs that have been fertilized in vitro — by an assisted human reproduction clinic — and then ...

Question: How are embryonic stem cells grown in the laboratory?
Answer: Human embryonic stem cells are isolated by transferring the inner cell mass into a plastic laboratory culture dish that contains a nutrient ...

Question: How are embryonic stem cells stimulated to differentiate into specialized cells?
Answer: Providing the embryonic stem cells are grown under certain conditions, they remain undifferentiated. However, if they are allowed to clump ...

Question: What laboratory tests are used to identify embryonic stem cells?
Answer: At various points during the process of generating embryonic stem cell lines, scientists test the cells to make sure they exhibit the ...